


Want

by rem_writes



Category: Little Women (2019), Little Women Series - Louisa May Alcott
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Multi, Requited Love, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-18 05:33:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28987158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rem_writes/pseuds/rem_writes
Summary: Amy wants Laurie, but Laurie wants Jo.
Relationships: Theodore Laurence/Amy March, Theodore Laurence/Josephine March
Kudos: 28





	Want

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as a sort of character study but it's also the first thing I've written since 6th grade so there's that

Amy knew what it was like to want. She had wanted a great many things in her life. When she was five, she had wanted a cat. At twelve, she had wanted her father to come home. Wanted her family to be together and happy. (And maybe a little more fortunate.)  
As she matured, so did her desires. She wanted to travel, and to paint, and to help provide for her family. But secretly, in Amy’s heart of hearts, she had wanted Laurie. Sweet, beautiful Laurie, with his brown hair and his crooked smile. Wonderful Laurie. Jo’s Laurie. Amy knew that this want, her most desperate want, could never come true. Jo was Laurie’s, and Laurie was Jo’s.  
It wasn’t as hard as Amy would have thought, keeping her love to herself. She had grown up with Laurie, grown up learning to love through Laurie. To Amy, love was in the small things as much as it was in the grand gestures. She knew she was in love when Laurie came to check on her at her aunt's house, or when he asked about her paintings. Amy had loved Laurie for her entire childhood, but Laurie could never know. 

For Laurie, his greatest want was Jo, always Jo. From the moment he set eyes on her, in the dingy back room of a party, he was drawn to her and to that house across the road like a moth was to a flame. There was a sense of life to Jo, a sense of joy. She was brave and determined and always stood her ground. In short, she was everything Laurie had ever wanted.  
To him, love was in the action. It was racing down the streets with his best friend, smiling so wide it hurt, or writing letters, beautifully worded letters, and leaving them in the post office he had made. Laurie thought love was here, in his best friend, forever by his side. It was carving out a spot for himself amongst the hectic family next door, and hoping against all hope that Jo wanted him to occupy that space as much as he wanted to. But Jo did not feel the same, did not want him as he did her. Laurie had never bothered to imagine a future without Jo, and now that he did not have her, not as he wanted her and hardly as he used to have her, he did not know what he wanted.  
He needed to get far away, to escape Jo and forget any of this had ever happened. Forget that he had bared his heart to the one person he was closest to in the world, only to have it shredded like an old tapestry. So, he traveled. Germany, England, Paris. And in Paris, he found Amy.

Amy was just beginning to discover herself and what it was she truly wanted. She had realized that, maybe, her dream of becoming a painter was farther away than she had originally thought. She tried to cope with this, while also knowing that she was mere moments from committing to a future she didn’t truly want, with a man she didn’t truly love.  
But then Laurie was there, and he was as beautiful as he had always been, and she was calling for him, and throwing her arms around him, and she had never wanted him quite this much before. It was possible now. It was just the two of them in Paris. No sisters, no Jo, just Laurie and Amy and a thousand wishes Amy had never allowed herself to believe in.  
Laurie walked her to her art lessons, to museums and monuments, and was by her side every moment of the day. And then, then he was asking her not to marry Fred Vaughn. And she was agreeing. Agreeing to deny Fred, agreeing to be with him.  
For the first time, Amy didn’t have to just want. She got to have. And having was beautiful. It was bright and happy and full of promises for the future. And Amy wouldn’t have her life any other way.


End file.
